Hi all,
I thought I'd do a review on the multi tool that my sis and brother in law gave me for Christmas. I actually like it. Is it Vic quality? No. Is it LM quality? No. And are there things about it I don't like at all? Yes. But it's still a very cool tool but more importantly a tremendously thoughtful gift from my sis. She may not understand my obsession, but she wanted to give me something I'd like. She succeeded.
I haven't used the dickens out of it yet, but it was my faithful little tool during the time I was home for Christmas. I wanted to try it out so here are my impressions.
Although I don't know exactly how much it weighs, it is a heavy little bugger for it's size. But it packs a lot into one little tool.
Feature list:
Main Blade (a little shorter than Explorer main blade)
Scissors
Fish scaler
Saw
Can Opener
Cap lifter/flat head screwdriver
Backspring phillips
Corkscrew
Awl
Sewing eye something or other (I don't remember the name of that)
Keyring
Here's a pic:
The pros:
I love the blade even though it seems to have a funny shape to it. It's kind of curvy. But it works great. The grind is a bit uneven, but I plan to fix that in short order. It is a bit short and not as shiny as Vic, it works just fine. It opened many a box on Christmas and helped out with a few other tasks as well. It didn't hold it's edge too well, but a few minutes on Dad's crock sticks did the trick. I'll probably reprofile it at some point.
Another favorite feature is the backspring phillips. I've got to admit that I've become quite fond of it lately, even on my SAK's. But this one is a lot smaller than the on on the Tinker, Super Tinker or Hiker. It has a slightly smaller reach, but the head fits better into the smaller screws of my nieces toys and such. I used it exclusively to replace batteries and the like over the weekend. It worked great!
The scissors are admittedly not Vic quality. However they don't stick, they cut all along the length of the blades, and they are very easy to get out since they have a little lip instead of nail knick. Very useful little things. I cut paper, tape, string, and a baby dolls hair (gum...nough said). Very handy.
Now other than the color, which I love, that's about where the positives stop. However, just because there are more cons doesn't mean that I don't like this thing. Most of the cons are fixable.
Most of them.
Cons:
Can opener: I don't think I could open a can made out of butter with this thing. It gives the appearance of having an edge to it and doesn't have a small flat head on the end like the Vic's do. I think it acutally looks more like a Wenger but without the function. However, a little time and patience, and I believe I can sharpen it up. I'll have to give it a try and see.
Cap lifter/screwdriver: Well the caplifter part works well, but again the screwdriver part is just so rounded and dull that it doesn't work that well. I tried taking the screws out of a lightswitch cover and it just slipped too much. I'm gonna try to fix that.
The awl is crap...it really is just a piece of metal they stuck in there that's in the vague shape of an awl. It can be sharpened though so I'm going to try that. I don't know if these pictures will really give you an idea of it or not, but trust me, it's bad.
By far the worst is the saw. For one thing it's short and for another it can't cut anything. I compared it to the saw on my KF4 and my new Hiker and it sucks. I took a comparison shot with the hiker saw. I don't know much about saws, but it just doesn't do the job. I used all three to cut up a pole, a piece of firewood, and just put some notches in a 2x4...Unfortunately I don't have shots of them all working. You'll just have to trust me. Incidentally, the KF4 won my little impromptu test.
But that's just my opinion.
As for the other tools, well I haven't really tried them out. Like I said this tool is not the highest quality out there, but for sticking it in the car or in a pocket for somethiing to have it isn't bad at all. i'm actually thinking it's going to be one of the tools I keep in my car. It looks really awesome. It may lack in some quality, but it works and I think I can fix some of the minor issues. Although I do have a bit of preference for Vic SAK's, I am still very happy with this particular present. Like I said, she tried and I love her for it. I know this was a bit wordy and long, but I just wanted to show it to all of you and give you my impressions. I have no idea where she got it but I'm thinking it was someplace like Khol's. Have a good one everybody.
Gray
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